Psalm 14:1 (page 486, NKJV) “Atheism Is For Fools” + + Trinity Sunday / June 3, 2012 + + Summerlin Ev. Lutheran Church, Las Vegas, NV
“The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God.’ They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.”
In the name of the Triune God, the living God, the God who was, and is, and always will be, fellow saints,
A young man told his Christian friend that he didn’t believe in the existence of God. “I will not believe in a God that I cannot see!” he said. “After all I have a brain!” “So you only believe in what you or somebody else has seen—is that it?” Then he paused for a moment—and with mischief in his voice, he added, “Has anyone ever seen your brain?”
To those of us who’ve been Christian for a long time, it may seem absolutely senseless for a person to be an atheist—to believe that there is no God. But, of course many people in our world today believe just that. And don’t think that atheism is something new to the world. Already centuries ago King David showed that he was quite familiar with those who believed that there is no God. Inspired by the Holy Spirit to write God’s Word, David wrote, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God.’” Atheism is for fools, God says. And why is it so foolish to believe there is no God? Because there is so much evidence that points us to God so that everyone should know that He’s out there somewhere.
You don’t even need a Bible to know He’s out there. (Psalm 19:1) “The heavens declare the glory of God,” the Bible says, “and the firmament (skies) shows His handiwork.” Just look up at night and you should know that there is a God. In fact, the apostle Paul says that the testimony of nature around us is so powerful that no one has any excuse for not believing in God. He says, (Romans 1:20) “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.” The beauty and complexity of nature, the intricacy of human life, can lead to only one sensible conclusion. Someone very wise and powerful must be responsible for it. That someone we call “God.” Speaking about Him, King David said, (Psalm 139:14) “I will praise You, Lord, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well!”
Should it surprise us that people do not come to that logical conclusion? Should it surprise us that so many classroom textbooks tell us that life began as a freak accident in a puddle of primordial goop? It doesn’t surprise me…if a person chooses to disbelieve God; they have no other recourse except to believe that life is some kind of freakish accident. But this is the belief of fools, God says. The New Testament writer to the Hebrews says, (Hebrews 3:4) “For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.” The most brilliant scientist sees a car and believes there’s a designer. He sees a portrait and believes there’s an artist. He reads a book and believes there’s an author! He sees creation and denies the Creator! God says, absolute foolishness!
Nature says there is a God! Are we getting the message from the created world around us? Or have we learned to take all these things for granted? We call what surrounds us “nature,” because the stunning miracle of God’s creation has become somehow “natural” to us. Are we so used to the rising and setting of the sun that we’ve lost our sense of awe and wonder over the great designs of our great God? God’s marvels are all around us. How foolish to look at nature and not see the sheer magnificence of God!
But there’s another clear witness to the existence of God, isn’t there? Something each one of us has built right into us. It’s called our conscience. It’s the persistent voice within us that tells us the difference between right and wrong. Why do you think it is that a person can commit a sin even in secret and still feels the twinge of a nagging conscience and the inescapable power of guilt? We instinctively know that there is a God, that He stands opposed to sin, and that one day an answer must be given for it. I’m reminded of a survey that once was taken in India. It asked, among other things, what religion each person was. Out of 6.5 billion people, only 20 claimed to be atheists. How can that be? Their conscience told them that out there, somewhere, there must be a Supreme Being—God to whom they were accountable.
You know, I have read that only about 7% of people in America claim to be bona fide confessing atheists. Okay—but that doesn’t even begin to address the real matter, because there are two types of atheist in America: the intellectual atheist, believes there is no God based on what he chooses to believe; and the practical atheist—even someone who considers himself a Christian—who nevertheless behaves just as if there were no God. The practical atheist says: “There’s a God, sure. But for the most part I’m going to ignore Him and do whatever I want to do. Sure, there’s a Bible, but I really don’t know much about what it says, because I’m going to do what I want to do and I’m going to believe what I want to believe, because really it’s all about me…not God!”How many practical atheists do you know?
The most famous atheist of our day, of course, was Madelyn Murray O’Hare. Her son William quotes her as saying…”I’m an atheist, not because I’ve searched behind every star and looked under every rock to prove there’s no God. I’m an atheist because I want to live my life as if there’s no God.” There’s only one explanation for this attitude, and it is the foolishness of the sinful unbelieving heart.
“The fool has said in his heart, there is no God!” God exists, alright. Deep down, everyone should know it. Like the little boy at the dinner table who said to his Dad, “Do you think God knows that we don’t believe in Him?” But it’s not enough just to believe that God exists. There’s something else we need to know—vital information that can only come from one source. Only the Bible can tell us who the true God is. Only the Bible can tell us what the true God has done for us. And in the Bible we are told unmistakably that the true God is the Triune God—that He is one God who has revealed Himself to us as three distinct persons. Yes, One plus One plus One equals One. It’s not logical BUT it is Biblical! The Three in One God is the God of the Bible.
Again and again in the Bible the Father is called God, and the Son is called God and the Holy Spirit is called God. However, we also read in Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!” So we are left with the one inescapable conclusion that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the one God.
One of the clearest pictures of the Triune God in the whole of Scripture is the Baptism of Jesus Christ. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, all three members of the Trinity were there. You remember that John the Baptist objected when Jesus asked to be baptized by him. But then Jesus replied: (Matthew 3:15-17) “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
And so there you have it—the one God is clearly revealed to us in three separate and distinct persons. We believe the doctrine of the Trinity not because it makes nice, neat mathematical sense, but because God says so in His Word and for us His Word is the final word—on everything! In order to know God, I must know the Holy Spirit, who gives me the power to know and believe the Word. In order to know God, I must know Jesus Christ, who says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes unto the Father, but by Me.” Jesus Christ alone is the Way to heaven. He gave Himself on the cross to pay for our sins and to free us from what we deserve because of them--eternal death in hell. He rose triumphantly from the grave showing us that we will one day rise to everlasting life. Not because of our own merit or worthiness, not because we are by nature “more righteous” than others, not because we are “better people” now that we are Christians, but because we have received the perfect righteousness and perfect forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ—all of which is a product of God’s grand undeserved love for sinners. It’s called God’s grace!
“No God?” “Don’t be foolish!” There are a lot of things of which people can live without or with little—money, fame and education. They can eke out an existence without friends, or liberty, or health. But, they can’t really live this life, and they can never know the heavenly bliss of the life to come – without knowing the true God—the Triune God. Let’s use every opportunity we have to tell the world, with humility and great joy, with our lips and with our lives, that indeed there is a God…and that God is the Triune God reveled in the Scriptures! Amen.
Response: Confession of Faith / Athanasian Creed, p. 4 folder